A 65 acre plot of farmland which reverberates with rock for one weekend a year is coming up for sale.

This is no ordinary field but a central chunk of the Reading Festival site in Richfield Avenue.

The land is currently owed by Caledonian Investments plc which has been charging festival organiser Mean Fiddler £165,000 rent for the period around the August Bank Holiday weekend event from Sunday, July 1, to Sunday, September 30.

The legal agreement with Mean Fiddler expires after this year’s festival, which would give the new owner an opportunity to put up the rent, according to Roger Hicks of Hicks Baker, the selling agent.

Mr Hicks would not reveal the asking price for the land but those in the know suggest it would be between £2 million and £3 million.

Mean Fiddler bought the much larger neighbouring 126-acre site at Little John’s Farm – to the west of the for sale site – in 2005 for around £3 million to secure the future of the festival.

The new piece of land up for sale has access to the River Thames and to Richfield Avenue.

It is bounded to the east by Reading Borough Council-owned land at Rivermead Leisure Centre, to the north by the borough-owned Thames Promenade and to the south by council-owned allotments.

Festival boss Melvyn Benn, of Mean Fiddler, confirmed his company was interested in buying the land and was already in talks with the owner.

He said: “They are talking silly money at the moment as if it had various planning permissions which we don’t think it would ever get.

“The festival is itself the block on any development of the site, that and the fact it’s in the flood plain. There are thousands of people who visit that site every year who can provide any amount of physical proof that it’s entirely in the flood plain.”

Mr Benn said the present owner of the sale site had wanted to build flats but was unable to.

He said: “We could if necessary have the festival on the land that we own. We have a very important access to it at Cow Lane. Wewouldn’t want to do that but we could if we had to so I think we have the upper hand in negotiations.

“Reading Festival is safe on that site for the future.”

However, although Mean Fiddler is an obvious candidate to consider the purchase, Mr Hicks said the company did not have “first refusal” and the land would be sold on the open market.

It is understood council bosses are aware of the sale but have not yet met to consider whether or not to make an offer.

A sales brochure says of the site: “In itself, it is likely to be suitable only for low-key recreational use. However in combination with the adjoining land there are significant social, leisure, housing, transportation and economic benefits that could be realised through the development of a small part of the larger site.

“By pooling the resources, the landowners could realise a vision that provides these benefits, subject to the appropriate agreements and planning consents.”

It suggests: “In broad terms the concept could include a replacement leisure centre, improvements to the permanent infrastructure, theprovision of well-designed housing, the creation of a significant area of public open space and improvements to the Rivermead promenade.”

Although the entire sale site is in the floodplain, the brochure says 35 acres of the wider festival site is “dry land”.

Mr Hicks added: “Of course, there is the potential for other festivals.

“Womad was obviously there for many years and there obviously could be other festivals there in future – the potential is there.”

The land is currently let under an annual farm business tenancy but there is no security of tenure.

It would also be affected by the £515 million plan to upgrade Reading railway station which includes a road from Richfield Avenue through the borough allotments to Scours Lane and which if approved in July might mean part of the sale site will be required for the road.